Polaris
The Polaris are typically described as quiet and reserved, yet few would call them gentle giants after witnessing them in combat or upon a hunt. Make no mistake – the Polaris are hunters through and through, albeit patient in their task. With two distinctive personalities stemming from a homeworld whose evolutionary process led to two brains, speaking to a Polarian at night or day can feel quite literally like night and day indeed, the two minds opting to sleep while the other wakes. This makes for excellent nighttime guards, though it has also led to a great deal of confusion for other races who may not be aware of this trait. Physical Description: As the various sapient races within The Endless Stars go, the Polaris are one of the largest humanoids, with females growing to be substantially larger than the males in most cases. Vaguely reminiscent of the now-extinct centaur, these enormous predators possess an azure to viridian skin tone for their upper torso, which appears similar to that of a human, though with armoured exo-skeletal plating over many key areas of their form. Upon reaching the waist, however, the body type changes considerably, drawing farther back into a secondary torso, wide and moderately flat, covered with thick, dark guard hairs which looks similar to a heavy coat of fur and is dense enough to repel small weapons to a degree. The lower torso sports six powerful legs, three each to the left and right sides of the body, with each leg ending in a large, jade spike which entails about half of the total length of the leg itself. These potent legs allow for wading through deep water, climbing steep cliffs and martial combat with remarkable ease. The Polaris have a large pair of pointed horns, these horns attached to the back and sides of the skull then curving forwards out past their face. The horns themselves are hollow, more decorative than for combat, and are often decorated with paints and carvings to denote one's victories. Culturally speaking, each of the two minds of a Polaris get to decorate their own horn separately. A thick and typically wavy head of hair cascades down the backs of most Polaris, both male and female, with an abundance of metal jewelery attached to the hair. Table: Polaris Height and Weight Among the more unique aspects of the Polaris, aside from their obviously different shape and frame, is the two brains they possess. The Polarian homeworld of Dichoterra is a small moon which orbits between a binary of larger planets in a figure-eight pattern of sorts. These two planets possess remarkably powerful and opposing electromagnetic and ætheric fields. At any one time, the fields wax and wane with this cycle and life has adapted to work within the constraints of needing two entirely different central nervous systems. Upon their homeworld, these two minds are incompatible, unable to ever interact directly with each other, one always dormant in a hibernating stasis as the other controls the body. Beyond their homeworld, both fields typically are active at the same time which has led to great discomfort for the Polaris. As such, the vast majority prefer to have one mind asleep during the day, the other sleeping during the night so that they need never interact with one another. Some few, rare cases exist where both minds may be active at the same time, though this is typically rare as a great deal of disagreement is often had in relation to controlling their body in any sort of coordinated manner and it's more than a little unsettling for the Polarian in question. Another remarkable feature of this race is the ability to weave several forms of silk, some being sticky and others simply built for powerful tensile strength. Braiding these silks to form armour has been a fairly common form of basic protection for many of the Polaris, and advanced training with one's spinnerets have led to the creation of remarkably powerful armoured suits with limited reduction of mobility as well. Powerful legs and clawed tips also allow for climbing over some of the most difficult terrain. If a Polarian is not concerned with damaging structures, many have trained until their leg talons are powerful enough to even pierce through solid stone, climbing straight up sheer cliff faces to strike their prey from above. Pure carnivores, the Polaris have no real capacity to feed upon much of anything other than meat and this can pose a threat to them over extended periods. On the beneficial side, their strong constitutions allow them to easily devour even raw and untreated meats if a fire is not available to cook upon, though they do greatly prefer cooked food if at all possible. In addition to their primary voices, the Polaris also have several additional stalk-like limbs upon the back of their upper torso which normally are held safely against their backs, but which can extend and spread out for use when so desired. At the base of each of these limbs is a fleshy valve to and an extra voicebox, the males possessing eight stalks and the females possessing six. These limbs each have a series of gaps within the chitinous carapace which can be opened or closed at will, allowing for a full choir of song by a single individual, either for the purpose of attracting a mate, or for scaring off prey. Ventriloquism is a commonly learned skill among the Polaris, being utilized to make it appear as though there are far more of them in number than there actually are, both for defensive measures against larger predators than even they themselves, or to herd prey with the false sound of being surrounded. Note that all Polaris have essentially the exact same voice for each of their stalks, with only their primary voice changing between individuals to distinguish them apart, these additional stalk-voices being so uniform that they can be intentionally used to provide additional subtext to their speech. Despite their appearance, the Polaris are born live rather than hatched from eggs, and are warm blooded, able to regulate their own body temperature substantially better than many other races even. So long as their upper torso is provided with warm clothing, their lower torso requires very little in the way of further protection against the elements. Culture: With their hunter's background, the culture of the Polaris mostly revolved around the hunt for the majority of their history; great warriors adorned and decorated for returning with a meal for their tribe. These decorations soon became formalized, tattoos and carvings of the horns and leg talons used to denote one's rank within their society and the accomplishments of the individual. As the tribes grew and resources diminished, tribal warfare became inevitable. The hunter lifestyle left behind in favour of a soldier's life. Unlike many other species, however, war was conducted almost entirely through guerrilla warfare amidst towering trees stemming from deep bogs and swampland. The hunter's mentality quickly shifted to small groups of coordinated attackers tossing nets of silk to capture prey then falling from the trees to tear their foe asunder. Traps, tripwires, and many other complex uses of the naturally abundant and powerful silk fibers were made use of, and these same tactics have been handed down even to those Polaris who now walk among the stars. Socially, the Polaris are typically quiet and reserved, their natural instinct to be social but to speak in hushed tones due to waiting for webs to be disturbed for hours at a time. The silky smooth and calming voices intended to lull prey into a false sense of security are considered quite beautiful by many, both from within the ranks of the Polaris themselves, and most other races, described frequently as being able to give a Siren's song a strong contest. Both the males and females possess deep, yet feminine sounding voices which carry but a short distance from their primary voice, with their additional stalk-voices able to reach varying ranges and frequencies. Singing, in particular, is a favoured pastime and one of the few cases where the Polaris are willing to raise their voices as it tends to lure prey rather than chase such off. Which voice a member of the Polaris uses in conversation is dictated by a complex series of cultural protocols, often using several at a time to display a variety of emotions by having each voice speak a different synonym for a word as an echo of each other to represent the different thoughts on a matter. This can be quite disorienting to most other races and takes some practice to grow accustomed to. When interacting with others, most Polaris tend to be fairly to the point, not often wasting words and being brief in general. The only times this tends to be rescinded, is during singing or debate – the daytime or electric Polaris known in particular for their sharp analytical and logical reasoning, rarely allowing their more base and primal instincts to take over. The night or ætheric Polaris, the second mind of each, is quite a different story. Impassioned reasoning and desire tends to flow far more freely from the ætheric brain, as does magic itself. It's not entirely uncommon for the two halves of a Polarian to hold wildly different views on many topics, to have separate mates, or to even train in entirely separate tasks. In fact, many Polaris hold two distinctively different classes when it comes to combat, training each separately, though it's far more common to have similar tastes with differences of how to apply such. A defensive-oriented Polarian, for example, will trend towards using physical or magical/psionic defenses depending upon which mind is in charge at a given time, but the overall skillset will often be quite similar. In reference to a Polarian's other half, it's generally considered taboo within their culture to refer to their other half by name, or even to reference them at all. It's largely viewed akin to speaking about someone behind their back. The primary exceptions to this are if a Polarian's mate seeks to discuss them, or the Polarian themselves desires to speak of their other half first. It's more frequent, however, to simply act as though their other half doesn't exist, again excepting that the Polarian themselves often tends to leave notes to themselves, a common practice being to wear a pair of rings with clasps upon either of their horns, the clasps holding small gemstones wherein ætheric energy can be used to inscribe a message to be replayed later, these gems and the typically golden rings and clasps far more functional than their appearance may suggest. Age/Naming Conventions: Upon their homeworld of Dichoterra, the Polaris tend to keep track of their age by the number of cycles around their planetary binary. This led quickly to ages reaching into the hundreds, and even thousands of cycles, and the initial addition of the Polaris to more major starfaring civilizations was met with much confusion over such as few understood that a cycle to the Polaris was not a full year, but rather closer to a fortnight. With no such cycles upon in space, this has led to a new Polaris calender needing to be developed for the race to associate with. As such, every two weeks of Standard time is deemed to be a Polaris cycle, even though the dates are slightly off and the time reference is largely arbitrary. By utilizing this calender, however, the Polaris are considered to be mature at about 700 cycles, or about 28 years of age, the race aging substantially slower than many others. Each Polaris is given a temporary name upon birth, this name holding very little meaning and often being just a number. Among the Polaris, it's held that no parent can know the heart of their child at birth. Instead, at 14 years or 350 cycles of age, both halves of a Polarian are given the opportunity to earn a name for themselves by undergoing a half-age ceremony. This ceremony typically involves capturing one each of the two most difficult prey in the area. Each half mind is then able to name themselves once they have earned this right. Religion: As patient hunters and possessing a second mind, the concept of each individual being unique and divine in nature has never really occurred to the vast majority of the Polaris. Instead, a more communal belief is held in the idea of all Polaris being viewed as a pair of strands of silk braided together as one and used to weave the tapestry of reality known as the Kismet. As a whole, it's viewed that each individual is responsible for each other; to harm another is to harm one's own self, each strand is woven in such intricate patterns that it can be nigh-impossible to predict how one's actions will affect the weaving of the tapestry, but that good actions tend to return back to oneself in time. While there are competing views among the Polaris as to the specific nature of what the Kismet is, or what actions are deemed to be "good", there is no direct deity which oversees such according to the religious views of the Polaris. While they don't deny that other deities do exist, they view these entities as simply being larger pictures woven into the tapestry and built of the same strands of fate, thereby making even the greatest of gods from other racial religions to appear as no more special than mortals beyond the number of strands they possess. This view of deities in general, along with the Polaris belief that those individuals with only a single mind are weakened links within the fabric, often causes some contention between them and other races. It's not uncommon for the insult of "onestrand" to be used to describe other species, the thought process being that, although they are each a strand in the Kismet, having only a single strand, or singular mind, instead of two, is a weakened section of the fabric and more prone to tearing. As such, most Polaris view other races as a disaster waiting to happen. Class (Or Role) Predispositions: The Polaris are as varied as most, though as the Polaris have two minds, it's very common for each to have their own separate specialization, identical in all ways besides such, with the Solaris mind tending to favour a more rational, logical specialization, and the Lunaris mind typically favouring more impassioned specializations. Hailing from a race of predatory hunters as well, many Polaris have an especially fond spot as being Rogues, Thieves, Hackers and other exploitative roles, being remarkably graceful and silent despite their overly large size. NOTE: The Polaris retain all physical traits, skills, talents, statistics and so on regardless of which mind is in control at any one time. Traits are unique to the individual Polaris mind. While it's possible to have both Polaris halves play different classes, due to the shared aspects it's generally advised against doing so unless in the hands of a highly advanced player. It is, however, recommended for each half to possess a different specialization, the other half's specializations dormant and unusable while the other half is in charge. It is possible for The Kin to utilize both specializations' abilities at once, but to do so they sacrifice their capacity to be awake 24/7. Factions: The Polaris have two main axis of factions, marking them as a bit different from most other races in this regard. The first axis is that of the Solaris and the Lunaris, or the "day" and "night" factions for those Polaris who have taken to the stars. These are broadly known as "The Kin" among other races, while those which remain upon their homeworld are typically known as "The Stagnant". As those Polaris who remain upon their homeworld are intensely xenophobic, it's unlikely to ever encounter such, nor for them to leave their home. Since each Polarian has two distinctively separate minds, unless they suffer an injury to one of their two brains, this has led to a dichotomy of methodology. Upon leaving their homeworld, the first Terrans to encounter the Polaris described the two halves as day and night, referencing their star, Sol, and their moon, Luna, and the names were deemed acceptable and stuck. The Solaris tend to be more logical in their thought process, typically also relying upon physical methods to solve their problems. The Lunaris, in contrast, tend to be a bit more impassioned and utilize magic on a far more regular basis. As the Solaris are only just now being introduced to magic and psionics existing at all, as they physically could not interact with such on their homeworld due to their mind being dormant during the ætheric half of the orbital cycle, even when acting as mages they often forget that magic exists at all and will be far more likely to use magic to amplify their physical abilities as an instinctive action. The Lunaris, however, are so used to magic that it's rare they don't utilize magic for almost everything. Even programmers, technicians and other mechanically-based roles are heavily augmented by magical or psionic amplification. It's not even particularly uncommon for a member of the Polaris to utilize aspects of the Kismet within their daily lives, often making small, subtle changes with wide-scale long term effects. This minimalist mentality is common among the Polaris, and they often begin plans with a wealth of contingencies weeks and months before the end effect occurs. As each Solarian tends to house both factions within them at the same time, but expressed at different times of the day, this can confuse many other races who speak to a Polarian during both the day and night, and Polarian towns tend to be very different in attitude depending upon the time of day as well. The second major axis of factions within the Polaris are those who feel that they should retain their separate lives with the Solaris and Lunaris distinct from one another, known as The Pure to themselves, or as covered above, The Stagnant to everyone else. The Pure are highly xenophobic, though they're not entirely close to the other races, but those few Pure who study the Kismet view other races as walking time bombs, strands just waiting to break at any moment. This doesn't mean The Pure avoid other races, but rather they consider it their duty to be present when such a tear in the fabric of the Kismet occurs, so that they can mend it immediately. They do tend to be overly critical of even the smallest of failings of other species, however, as they view each error to be greater for those who don't have two strands to correct the problems caused by such. The Kin, however, are more likely to view other races as a third strand to weave with their own pair into an even stronger braided cord of fate, and as such tend to actively seek out other races for the extra perspective they hold outside of the experience the Polaris are able to see.